Product Range Distribution: Creative Networks Sustainable Fashion

Creative Networks held an evening talk at uni on the subject of sustainable fashion, featuring 2 creatives who pride themselves in a sustainable approach to their practice.

The first guest speaker was Amy Twigger Holroyd, a fashion and knitwear designer.

Her journey in sustainable fashion began with a sequin cat. Whilst she was creating the design for this piece of clothing, she had to plan the placement of the sequins on the garment on a computer. She found this boring, and began to think of the people producing this on the other side of the world, who would be placing these sequins by hand on hundreds of pieces of this clothing.

It was only after doing her undergraduate degree that she discovered the concept of sustainability, as it was not taught to them at university from 1998- 2001. This shows how much times have changed and how big a consideration sustainabililty is and needs to be now, compared to 20 years ago. Amy became aware of the sheer scale of stuff being produced and consumed, and she then saw it as design challenge.

Recycling offers business an environmental excuse for instant obscelence - Fairlie, 1992

The more definitive solution is to keep - New on Colour, 2002

Psychological life span - the time products are able to be perceived and used as worthy subjects - Ed van Hinte, Eternally Yours 1997

Amy set up her own experimental knitwear brand called Keep and Share, with the idea of sustainability in mind. The aim of her brand was to be versatile and less impactful.

She became gradually more interested in the idea of sufficiency - satisfaction met by having less stuff. This led her to consider people's attachment to pieces and make this a focal point in her business, by concentrating on her direct relationship with customers (being a small brand) and creating products local.

In 2006 Keep and Share was the #1 boutique in the Independent. This made her business blow up and she exhibited at many events. At these events, people asked for the patterns for her products, so that they could make them themselves. This was at first frustrating but Amy eventaully realised it could be a good business opportunity. It tied into the morals of Keep and Share, making your own clothes, and having an emotional attachment to the clothing. This led to the creation of patterns to sell, and workshops for people to make their own clothing.

More recently, Amy has begun to research and create work and exhibitions around reusing and repurposing older clothes. She referes to this as stitch hacking or reknitting. (also known as upcycling).

keep and share publication on website on philosophy of brand.

Amy is also very interested in how people feel about things they've made themselves. She asked people to submit a statement about handmade clothing and got varied responses. The 2 most prominent were 
"a loving thought in every stitch'
"socially shunned for wearing a handmade hat'
These varied responses show the different views people hold on handmade clothing.

#memademay
#visible mending

folk fashion - understanding homemade clothes
BRIT + CO - 20 ways to repurpose old sweaters

marks and spencers cotton and polyester impact.
focus on quality and durability
fast sewing just as harmful as fast fashion
invest more time
making clothes is not always sustainable.
replacing one consumption with another
difficult to shake consumerist mindset

Alexander Taylor - industrial designer

Alexander bases his practice on the idea of comprehensive design. Limited resources encourages you to think out of the box & find solutions which makes for a more interesting product. This led to Alexander thinking: can I create something from a single piece of material/process/machine?
2012 pairs of the shoe were created for the 2012 Olympics. Making the shoe from 1 piece of material takes out extras such as glue, tools, engineering, which makes it more sustainable. 

The shoe was made from a single piece upper, and the heel made out of fuse yarn.
It was created in different colourways and in a limited edition. The shoe they were making was manufactured in Europe (Bavaria, Germany) instead of China, to save on shipping costs and prevent the ramifications of cheap labour. However it is not entirely 0 waste due to the processes needed to make it, and the sole was not made out of yarn either.

As a designer we have a responsibility to better the world. 
One statement Alexander made which resonated with me was 'recycling is not the answer. We need to redesign materials.' This shows that even though we recycle and we think this is good for the environment, it still isn't the best way we could be looking after the planet.
Also impactful on me was the the fact Alexander said that it was so frustrating to him that so much is possible in terms of pushing and implementing sustainability, but this requires major change to the system.

Adidas is working with Parley to reduce the amount of plastic in our oceans.

Sea Shepherd is a conservation society which patrols the oceans to conserve marine life. In one of their chases they caught an illegal fishing net gillnet made from nylon 6. The net was 2km high and 72km long which is the equivalent from Leeds to Manchester. The poachers cut the net if they're going to be caught, and then it floats in the ocean, doesn't decompose and continues to kill fish.

Adidas asked Alexander to create a shoe to show in New York. The finished product was made from the net.

The idea of using ocean plastic is not new but it has a big impact when it is used by such a big brand such as Adidas.

Currently, Alexander and Adidas are working on a project with a prominent factory in China. The materials coming from best mills around world, with millions of dollars of dead stock sitting in storage - instead of creating new materials, old redudundant materials will be used.

motivation for system to be scrutinised.